male seahorses give birth rather than females

Question

Female seahorse do not give birth, the males do.

Answer 1

Yes! Male seahorses do give birth to baby seahorses, however, they do not produce eggs. "... The female seahorse transfers her mature eggs into the male’s brood pouch, where they are fertilized. " States on the government website below. This means the father (male seahorse) carries the eggs until they're ready to be pushed out of the pouch by rhythmically contracting their abdominal muscles.

Website Link

Comments

You did a nice job of not only fact-checking the claim, but also providing the additional context of the males not producing the eggs themselves, which is important to the conversation!

Answer 2

Through the article provided it is clearly shown that this statement is true. Further explained and exemplified that the female seahorses are to be the gender that transfer her eggs into the male pouch for them to cary. In that pouch they are then fertilized which essentially means that they are impregnated. Male seahorses produce mass amounts of eggs at a time. 

How and why do male seahorses become pregnant?

Comments

It is a good idea to use other links to help confirm, however, how do we know your link is a verified source of information? I checked the link, and there seems to be no peer review nor citations to make it credible.

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Although your claim is correct about male seahorses give birth instead of females seahorses but you didn’t provide any source proving your claim. Providing a source would take you a long way with this claim.

Answer 3

This claim is accurate and coming from a reliable source. The website is a U.S. government backed association motivated towards protecting the ocean and the creatures that inhabit it. Their information is scientifically sourced and based in data, making them a reliable source. However in order to fully confirm the fact, I checked another very trusted source, The University of Sydney. In an article written by Dr. Camilla Whittington, the university confirms that male seahorses carry the embryos and birth them. 

https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/09/06/new-research-discovers-the-elaborate-and-unique-way-seahorse-fat.html#:~:text=Despite%20the%20similarities%20that%20male,shared%20similarities%20with%20female%20mammals.

Answer 4

The claim of this article is that female seahorses do not give birth, the males do. This article was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which is an official website of the United States government. In the article, they state that male seahorses and sea dragons get pregnant and bear young which is a unique adaptation. The female seahorses transfer their eggs into the males brood pouch, where they are fertilized. At the end of a gestation period which usually lasts between 2-4 weeks, the pregnant male seahorse will eject between a few dozen to 1,000 fully formed baby seahorses. Furthermore, sydney.edu.au published an article in September 2022 where they uncovered research about the unique way seahorse fathers give birth. They support this claim through explaining that the male pouch is equivalent to the uterus of female mammals. In conclusion, it is true that male seahorses get pregnant and give birth.

Answer 5

The content of the article is true, in that male seahorses do give birth rather than female seahorses. This is because when the seahorses are in the process of mating, the female seahorse transfers her eggs into the male seahorse's brood pouch, in which the eggs are fertilized. The male will experience contractions 2-4 weeks later giving birth to as many as a thousand infant seahorses. The source itself is very legitimate, being an official US government organization's site. The article is posted on noaa.gov's offshoot website Ocean Service.

Comments

Great job factchecking. I thought you did a great job of checking the legitimacy of the source being used, and stating that it is possibly one of the most reliable sources we can trust being the Us governments official site.  I also liked that you included some additional information speaking on how male seahorses experience contractions 2-4 weeks later after giving birth, and I thought that was a real cool fact that they could possibly birth to thousands of infant seahorses. Great job:)

Answer 6

The claim is true that male seahorses give birth. The claim is accurate and the cite is reliable as well. This article was written by National Ocean Service which is a very credible source because it is a government organization and fact checked. Female seahorses transfer eggs to the male seahorse to carry.

Comments

I do agree that the source of the information is reliable and accurate, but I do believe a successful fact check should include another source to back up the information from the given source.

Answer 7

After investigating the claim that Male seahorses give birth instead of female seahorses, I have come to the conclusion that this statement is true. In the article provided, it  states that seahorses are one of the few species where the male gets pregnant and gives birth rather than the female. I checked two other trustworthy websites, National Geographic and National Institute of Health, which both confirmed that the males get pregnant and give birth. When speaking about this rare trait in Sea Horses, National Geographic states that “Male seahorses undergo pregnancy and give birth to their sons and daughters.” Additionally, according to both National Geographic and National Institute of Health, this anomaly occurs when the Sea horses engage in a mating ritual which ends by the female depositing her eggs into the males pouch. Following the deposit, the eggs are then fertilized in the male's pouch.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/seahorse-fathers-take-reins-in-childbirth

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10253279/

Answer 8

This article claims that seahorses and their close relatives, sea dragons, are the only species in which the male gets pregnant and gives birth. This articles source is pretty much just itself as it was published by the national ocean service and they are a very reputable source. There are many other articles with the same or similar claims. This article is factual.

Comments

You stated: There are many other articles with the same or similar claims.

What are the other articles? Always cite your information. Thanks!

Answer 9

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35338-7

Yes, it’s true that male seahorses, not females, give birth, which is rare in the animal kingdom. In seahorses and their relatives like pipefish and sea dragons, the males carry and deliver the young. Research published in Nature Communications (2015) revealed that the male seahorse’s brood pouch acts similarly to a uterus, offering vital nutrients, oxygen, and waste removal for the growing embryos.

Answer 10

This claim seems to be correct! The link that you posted ends with .gov which means its an official government website. As it states on the website "After completing an elaborate courtship dance that may go on for hours or days, the female seahorse transfers her mature eggs into the male’s brood pouch, where they are fertilized. At the end of a gestation period usually lasting from two to four weeks, the pregnant male’s abdominal area begins to undulate rhythmically, and strong muscular contractions eject from a few dozen to as many as 1,000 fully formed baby seahorses into the surrounding water. After that, the offspring must fend for themselves. Large litters are necessary because only about 0.5 percent will survive to adulthood." It's a pretty elaborate tail for it to be fake, and again it's government website. But if that wasn't convincing enough. Some more evidence is https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/09/06/new-research-discovers-the-elaborate-and-unique-way-seahorse-fat.html The University of Sydney has also done some research. Yet again confirming! Woohoo! For a little extra evidence, Here's the US department of commerce confirming it's a real administration! (https://www.commerce.gov/bureaus-and-offices/noaa)